Xephon made his way quickly to Yoh's house easily keeping up with Manta's bike. As he got to the front door he saw that it was open, slowly he made his way in, remembering what had happened the last time he had come in here when the front door had been left open.
Xephon relaxed when he saw that everyone was sitting around a table in the main room talking to each other quietly.
"Hey Xephon what you took you so long? Grab a seat." Yoh told him in his usual cheery voice. "We were just talking about what we think the next round of the tournament would be like."
"It won't be as easy as the preliminarys were." Xephon replied.
"Dude you are so negative, can't you just relax and have fun for once? Even Ren can do that."
"I'd watch what you say." Ren told the blue haired Ainu coldly.
"Yeah like your gonna do anything about it." Horo muttered.
"What was that?" Ren asked with deadly calm. Almost immediately the two began fighting and this brought the girls down from upstairs to yell at them until they stopped.
"Hey Anna what are you doing upstairs?" Yoh asked the ice queen nonchalantly.
"We're cleaning up some one else's mess." Jun answered before Anna could respond and gave Xephon a cold glare. Xephon just shrugged and started talking to Manta, asking him whether he knew anything about Patch village.
It was roughly 11pm before they all went to sleep and although Xephon wouldn't admit it he'd had a good time. The gang hadn't forced him to make conversation like other people did, they'd let him be but had listened whenever he said anything. The only downside to the evening had been when he had been about to go to bed and had run into Jun in the corridor.
She'd tried to slap him but he caught her wrist and held it until she looked him in the eye.
"What did you do to her?" Jun asked anger in her voice.
"What are you talking about?"
"That girl, Mia, the one you brought here. We cleaned her wounds and bandaged her up but she won't wake up. Anna tried to get in her mind but said that she was in too much pain for her to do anything."
Xephon frowned for a moment. He'd been sure he hadn't used that much power on the girl but if she was in that much pain then maybe he had over done it. Don't worry about it, he thought to himself, there's nothing you can do now. You didn't use enough to kill her, it will probably just be a few more days before the force of the attack wears off, I hope.
"Don't worry about her she's not dead and she'll be fine in a few days." Xephon told the green haired Chinese girl.
Jun stared at Xephon for a few moments and when she spoke there was a hint of astonishment in her voice, "You don't care do you? You really don't care. You carried her all the way here but if she died you'd just shrug your shoulders and act as if nothing happened. How can you be so heartless?"
Xephon took a deep breath and kept his face blank as he replied "Because I learned that a heart was useless a long time ago." he then walked off to his room trying to suppress the emotions the words had caused in him. Leaving Jun staring at his back, speechless.
-
Xephon woke up early again the next day and sat down in the back garden trying to think in scilence, but he couldn't calm down. He kept remembering Jun's words and they made him uncomfortable. She doesn't know anything about me, she has no right to judge me, even as he thought this it didn't make him feel any better.
Finally deciding that he wasn't going to get any thinking done he decided to get some breakfast and then try and work off some of his anger at the scrap heap.
As he finished his breakfast he went to grab his sword and as he headed for the door someone called out.
"Where are you going?"
Xephon turned round and saw Anna at the top of the stairs. She still looked quite tired and she hadn't dressed properly yet.
"You should get some more sleep." Xephon told the blond Ikato he headed back to the door.
"I asked you where you were going." There was steel now in Anna voice as she got into dictator mode.
"Sense when has it been your business to put your nose in my life? Your not my friend and your sure as hell not any family member, so don't bother asking again." Xephon replied in a smoothed over cold voice. Without another word he turned and left before Anna could respond.
-
It was 11am and Anna had just thrown out Yoh and the other to get some training done before they went to search for Patch village in a few days.
Anna looked at the clock on the wall again and started tapping her foot on the floor.
'She should be here by now, she said tomorrow morning so where is she?'
"Anna what are you so worked up about?" Pilika asked
"Her guest hasn't shown up yet, isn't that right?" Jun answered. Anna nodded briefly and then started pacing the room.
"Just who did you invite anyway?" Tamao asked from her corner of the room where she had been reading.
"Xephon's sister."
The other three girls stared at Anna for a moment before asking 'Why?' in unison.
Anna stopped pacing and gave a cold smile. "Well when Xephon stood up to me he said that he would always be one step ahead of me because his sister was worse than I am."
The other girl's mouths all fell open at this statement and Anna gave a dry smile.
"I now I didn't believe it either but I decided to go and look up his sister, I found out quite a lot of interesting stuff by the way. Apparently the Krisall's are as rich as the Tao's. They own shares in some major business corporation and Xephon's sister manages all of it by herself. I managed to find a phone number and gave her a call, apparently they haven't seen each other for years because both of them travel so much. When I told her that Xephon was here she basically booked a first-class ticket on the first plane to Japan she said she'd be here this morning but she hasn't shown up yet."
As soon as Anna had said this there was a knock at the front door. Anna walked over to door very slowly and opened it.
Outside there was a woman who appeared to be in twenty's. She was surprisingly tall and wore a very serious looking black suit with black heels and her silver hair was hung loosely down to her shoulders and was carrying a grey briefcase with a black handle. She was also wearing black sunglasses but when she saw Anna she took them off, revealing a pair of ice blue eyes.
'Hello I'm looking for someone called Anna." The woman told the young Ikato in perfect japanese.
"That would be me." Anna replied.
The woman looked surprised for a moment but then held out her hand.
"Well it's good to meet you. I'm Zahara, Xephon's sister. May I come in?"
Anna led Zahara inside and introduced her to the other girls. Zahara was polite and complemented each of them,
"Pilika, hello pleased to meet you. You're an Ainu aren't you? I visited an Ainu family in the mountains once, the scenery is breathtaking."
Pilika took the compliments with a smile.
"Tamao, that's a cute name, I like your pink hair. You're a psychic? Wow I've always wanted to be able to see the future, your really lucky."
Tamao was still in awe of the woman's beauty to say anything.
"Jun Tao? Really I know your family, I used to work for your grandparents how are they? They were always kind to me."
Jun was taken aback slightly by Zahara's behaviour; she had expected her to be more like her brother but she seemed to be nearly the opposite.
"Are you sure your related to Xephon?" Jun asked the silver haired woman.
"Yes I am," Replied Zahara with a laugh, "has he been giving you the silent treatment? Well don't worry that's normal for him. He doesn't really socialize with people that much, so he just acts cold, but he's got a heart, and a good one at that, although he'd never admit to it."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Jun replied.
Zahara frowned "What do you mean?"
"Come with me." Jun led Zahara upstairs to Anna's bedroom where Mia was still sleeping. "Your brother brought her here yesterday after he finished beating her up and left her for us to clean up. We've cleaned her wounds but she's in some type of coma and we can't wake her up."
Zahara frowned again and turned towards Jun with her eyes darkened under her eyebrows, suddenly she seemed a lot more like Xephon. "You don't like my brother."
It was a statement not a question and the words were covered in ice.
"What is there to like?" Jun retorted, "He's a heartless little-"
"Be careful Frau Tao," whispered Zahara with her german accent more pronounced in her japanese, "I may be more emotional than my brother but I can be far more cruel then he is and I won't stand for anyone to speak ill of him. He restricts himself, I do not."
"Please don't fight." cried Tamao running between the two of them. As she did so Zahara's good humour seemed to come rushing back.
"Dear child whatever made you think that?" Zahara told the pink haired girl pleasantly, "I wouldn't dream of fighting with one of my host's guests. Now as to the problem of this young girl here..." Zahara let the worlds tail off and she walked over to Mia and put her hand on her forehead and closed her eyes.
"Dear me," she muttered "You have gotten strong haven't you brother."
Zahara removed her hand and turned to the rest of the girls who had made their way upstairs "She's perfectly fine, if we left her to her own devices she would wake up in about four days. However I can speed up that process."
As Zahara said this she drew a small silver piccolo from an inside pocket of her suit, she put it to her mouth and her fingers started moving along it's length. The sounds that came out were light and melodious, at the same time Anna noticed that the light in the room appeared to get brighter.
Zahara continued to play the instrument for 5 minutes or so and then put it away and waved her fingers over Mia's forehead. Almost immediately Mia began to move.
~~--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There was darkness everywhere, she couldn't see, she couldn't breathe. She tried to move but was stopped by a wall of fire that was more painful than anything she could imagine.
"Help me." she whispered. There was no reply. She began to sink into despair, no one will ever find me... I'm trapped, there's nothing I can do...
She felt a breeze across her cheek and looked up startled. The breeze was accompanied by the sounds of birds singing and the sound of a stream gurgling.
All at once the darkness vanished, she could see, she could breathe. She tried to move but the wall of fire remained; but it was not as painful as before. Beyond the fire she could see a light, a way out.
'There's no way I'm staying here.' she thought to herself. She tensed herself and ran through the fire and into the light.
"Owww" Mia groaned. Her body hurt like hell; all of her joints seemed to be on fire and her head felt as though someone had letting off dynamite inside.
She realised she was lying down and struggled to get into a sitting position. Her body argued with her judgement and Mia didn't have the strength to argue back and ended up lying down again.
Maybe I should just try and open my eyes, she did so and the light nearly blinded her but after a few seconds her eyes adjusted and she saw five women watching her, four of them with their mouths open. The fifth women however just seemed to have a knowing smile on her face.
"How do you feel?" she asked kindly.
Mia thought a moment before replying "Like a punching bag."
"That's not surprising, my brother did quite a number on you."
"Your brother?"
"Yes my name is Zahara Krisall, sister to Xephon Krisall."
"Who's Xephon?
Zahara frowned for a moment and said, "What is the last thing you remember?"
Mia thought for a moment but couldn't seem to recall anything past waking up in the bed. She told Zahara this and the woman's frown increased.
"Oh dear, you seem to have a partial case of amnesia, that means your guard was down when my brother hit you. Don't worry I should be able to deal with that as well, now just close your eyes."
Mia did so and Zahra placed her hand back on the girl's forehead. The temperature in the room dropped dramatically, so much so that whenever anyone breathed a mist formed in front of their mouths. This lasted a few seconds and then warmth slowly made it's way back into the room. Zahara removed her hand and backed off a little, giving Mia some room to breathe.
"My head." began Mia but she cut short by Zahara.
"Yes your head will hurt for a while but I think you'll find that you can remember a lot more now."
Mia shook her head slowly and got up, her legs almost buckled beneath her so she decided to sit down again. "I remember fighting in the junkyard but I was sure I beat Xephon."
"Why were you so sure?" countered Zahara.
"Well for starters I buried him under a ton of metal."
"How did you do that?" asked Anna who had been unusually silent.
Mia started describing the battle she'd had with Xephon; how he had starting beating her and then how she had knocked over the tower of burnt-out cars on top of him.
"Did you actually see it fall on top of him?" Zahara questioned.
"Yeah, Well sort of I didn't see it hit him because of all the dust it made when it hit the ground but there's no way he could have gotten out of the way in time." Mia replied and was annoyed to see the older woman smile. "I'm not making this up!" she almost shouted at the group.
"I never said that you were, but I wonder if you could answer something for me, after you knocked down the tower did you notice a breeze or a sudden gust of wind?"
Mia thought for a moment, she had been so busy celebrating over her supposed victory that she couldn't be certain.
'Wait a minute my hair kept blowing into my face when I was jumping around...' "Um yeah there a breeze why do you ask?"
"Because my brother has the ability to move so fast he..he uh... well I forget what he does but he moves fast and when he stops you feel the wind blow."
Zahara smiled shyly at her attempted explanation.
"That's not fair!" Mia pouted as she said this and Zahara raised her eyebrows.
"Really? Why not?"
"Because I can't do that!"
Zahara laughed at this statement and replied, "You really are childish aren't you? Think about it, if everyone were the same then there would be no reason for the shaman tournament. You may not have my brother's abilities but I'm sure there are things you can do that Xephon wouldn't be able to manage."
Mia thought about this for a while and seemed to calm down, "Yeah I guess your right."
"I know I'm right, now there's one more thing I want to ask you. Why did my brother agree to fight you in the first place? I would have expected to him to have just walked off.■
"He was about to walk off but..." Mia's voice faded away.
"What did you do?" asked Jun curiously.
"Well I attacked him."
"While his back was turned?" Pilika questioned.
Mia hung her head and mumbled "Yeah."
"And you hit him?" Zahara's voice was full of surprise, "Well, well, well, either my brother is getting lazy or you're stronger than you look."
"Why do you sound so surprised? Most people will get hit if they're attacked from behind." Anna remarked in her cool voice.
"Well it's just that, my brother may be a bit oblivious of what goes on around him, by his own darn will, Weiss on the other hand is sharper than any sword; there's no way he wouldn't have seen the attack coming."
"Well I didn't really hit him." Mia confessed "He dodged my attack but I kind of cut his coat in two and that seemed to be a bad move cause he got really pissed off."
"Was it a long dark grey coat?"Zahara.
"Um yeah."
"I designed that for him." Zahara's voice was just above a whisper, "I didn't think he liked it. He always complained about it being heavy."
"How can a coat be too heavy?" Mia asked in confusion.
"Well I had lead weights put into the lining."
"How much weight did you put in the coat?" Anna question the silver haired woman sharply.
"Oh about 180 pounds, nothing drastic." Zahara replied.
The other girls stared at Zahara open mouthed for a few seconds while Anna furiously had her own thoughts.
'180 pounds no way! Yoh doesn't even weigh 80 pounds and Xephon was able to beat Ren easily with it on. How fast would he be without it? Damn! I'll have to increase Yoh's training while they're looking for Patch village."
The group questioned Zahara for a while asking her what training techniques she had used on Xephon and how they worked.
"You threw him over a water fall!"
"You made him try and out run a Lion!"
At this point Tamao, who had been quiet and trying to block out the thoughts of what Zahara kept describing for the last half hour, had turned to Mia and asked her something.
"By the way, what's your name?"
Everyone seemed to quiet down at the moment in realization of the fact that they had been talking to the girl and had not known her name.
"Oh, I'm Mia, and....how did I get here in the first place? Did you guys find me in the junkyard after the fight or what?"
"Oh didn't we tell you? Xephon carried you here." Anna remarked in a bored tone of voice and then turned and continued questioning Zahara.
"Why'd he do that?"
"He said he was feeling 'generous.'" Jun scoffed at her own reply; indicating how unlikely she thought that was.
"Generous? Him? The only thing he cares about is himself. He certainly didn't care about how much he hurt me when we were fighting." Mia replied.
"Do not be so quick to judge my brother, he has every right to be as he is." Zahara voice had suddenly taken on an icy tone that rivaled Anna's.
"Really, well why don't you enlighten us then on what rights he has to act like a jerk." Jun told the silver haired woman with a sneer on her face.
"As you wish." as Zahara said this she stood up and raised her right hand into the air while holding her piccolo. A wind seemed to blow through the room as multiple musical notes were played and the room grew dark. Suddenly the dark room changed into a scenery, changing as Zahara began to talk.
"Imagine you are five years old. You are young and innocent and know nothing of death or disease. You have a loving family and a good home, your father is much respected because of various shamanic skills such as healing and exorcism."
A young boy is seen playing a field with his father, a man with distinguished features and dark hair, and his mother, a stunning woman with bright blond hair andblue eyes. Then the child is shown sleeping in a good home.
"The world is a beautiful place for you and you have nothing to fear."
"Sounds terrible." Mutters Jun from her seat.
Zahara continues as though she has not heard Jun, "Then one day people whom you had thought were your friends turn on you, they fear your father for his power and suspect that he will use his power to destroy them. So they lure him away from his home and murder him when he his defenceless."
The father man is shown walking through the woods with the young boy. Suddenly he freezes. The man looks around as his son looks up at him questioningly. Suddenly the man turns and shouts.
"Run Xephon! Run!" The boy does so, and as he runs the boy turns his head to see his father surrounded by men with rifles. Before his father has a chance to react he is shot at least 13 times from all directions.
"However that is not enough for the killers, they decide that the Shaman's family must also perish. They go to his home to murder his wife but they do not even allow her a peaceful death. They tie her down and build a bonfire around her and light it and then ride away as she is screaming in pain."
The room changes to show images following each of Zahara's words and rests on the image of bonfire piled high near a forest and a dark figure can be seen in the heat of the blaze. The image shifts suddenly to focus on the woods near the bonfire and a small child can be seen cowering by a tree.
"However the killers do not find the shaman's son, you, who had stayed hidden in the woods and was forced to watch the death of his own mother knowing there was nothing he could do to save her. From then on, you are never the same."
The world changed to show two coffins side by side, surrounded by many individuals, but in front of them all were Zahara, the young Xephon, silent and grieving, and a young man with white and black hair and a calmly serious face.
Light slowly filters back into the room and each of the girls have become deadly pale, Tamao is weeping on Pilika's shoulder and Jun eyes are wide in shock as are Mia's.
"How can people be so cruel?" Mia whispers.
"It is a human reaction, what people do not understand they fear. They did not understand my father's power and therefore feared him." Zahara replied, her voice still icy.
Jun shakes her head a moment and then turns to Zahara, "I am sorry, I had no idea..."
"I'm not the one you should apologise to, if you wish to make amends then do so with my brother, but do not tell him I showed you his past he would not want you feeling sorry him." Zahara replied in an acid voice.
"One thing I would like to ask," Anna began, "is where were you in all of this?"
"My father had sent me abroad to study and I did not know of his death until two weeks after his murder. I went home immediately hoping the story was false, but when I saw our home I had to accept otherwise, that was where I found Xephon; he had not moved from the spot where he had seen our mother die. He had almost starved himself to death by the time I had come home and it was a year before he would speak again."
An uneasy silence followed the story, no one was sure what to say.
Finally Tamao asked if anyone would like some tea and was greeted by a chorus of "Yes."
As Tamao left to make the drinks the rest of group started to make meaningless conversation. Jun however remained silent.
When Tamao returned with the drinks, there was a moment of silence as everyone took a sip.
"You know Zahara■ said Anna slowly, ⌠Your not quite what I expected. The way Xephon talked about you-"
"You thought I would be diabolically ruthless and act as if I owned your house?" Zahara cut in finishing Anna's sentence.
Anna shrugged her shoulders and replied, "Well yes actually."
"Well let's just say that in the years I've spent away from my dear brother I have matured slightly. I have found that while being cold and cruel may work a lot of the time it is sometimes far more effective to be kind and let a person's own guilt be their incentive, although now that I think about it, in a way that is also quite cruel..."
The girls slightly sweat dropped at that.
"But anyway, you are the one who told me where to find Xephon so I see no reason as to why I should be anything but kind to you. Though I expect that you will see a different side of me when I meet Xephon, I'm afraid theres practically the only way to talk to him." As Zahara finished speaking she placed her cup on the floor and turned so that she could face Anna more comfortably. "Now then,' she continued, "while we are on the subject, where is Xephon?"
"He left early this morning to go train." Anna told Zahara her voice emotionless.
"Did he say when he would be back?"
"No."
"Then I will assume he will back for dinner, he never stops for lunch anyway." once Zahara had said this she pulled a small black mobile phone from the pocket of her suit jacket and dialled a number, "Hello, can I speak to Dominic? Tell him its Zahara." There was a pause as the call was transferred and then Zahara started speaking again. "Hello Dom its Zahara, I was wondering if you still had a shop in Japan? You do? Great. Do you still make those weighted training coats I designed? Good, I would like you to make one for my brother, he will have grown slightly so make it larger than the first one...oh no not him, it's for Xephon."
Zahara continued to talk on the mobile for another 10 minutes before she finally finished ordering the new coat.
Everyone started to head downstairs to find some place more comfortable or to find something to do leaving Mia in her bed.
Mia had started to fall asleep from the sheer boredom of the conversations around her, she decided that she should get out of bed and try to get some fresh air. As she pushed the blankets away she realised that she wasn't wearing anything. She pulled the blankets back up hastily hoping no one had noticed.
"Where are my clothes?" she asked Tamao who was nearest to her. The pink haired girl turned and replied meekly "We sort of threw them out."
"What!" cried Mia outraged.
"Well they were covered in blood and we didn't think you would want to wear them again."
"But what am I supposed to wear?" Mia asked indignantly.
"Oh I'm sure you'll fit into some of Tamao's clothes, you seem to be about the same size," Anna said offhandedly, "you don't mind do you Tamao?" Anna asked the pink haired girl, but there was a tone in her voice that suggested that there would no argument at all.
"No Anna that's fine." Tamao replied timidly and hurried off to get some clothes.
When Tamao came back she was carrying an armful of clothes, which she dropped at the foot of the bed Mia was sleeping in. Mia sifted through the clothes and finally picked out a pair of black shorts and a green shirt with a red heart on the front.
Feeling slightly better now that she was dressed Mia made her way downstairs and looked for someone she could talk to. She had still had no idea where she was exactly and where the rest of her things were.
Walking around she found Jun In the kitchen making another pot of tea.
"Uh hi there." Mia said, Jun turned round and smiled when she saw Mia.
"Good your up, I was wandering how long you were to sleep. Do you want some tea?"
"Um no thanks." Mia replied, she hated the stuff and could never see how other people could drink it, she had a cup earlier because things were kind of awkward but hadn't drunk any of it. "Do you know where my weapons and stuff are?"
"I believe that Pilika had them so you will have to ask her."
"Which one's Pilika?" Mia asked confused.
"She's the blue haired Ainu, I think you'll find her outside in the garden."
"Oh, thanks." Mia walked off in search of Pilika and sure enough found her in the garden talking to Tamao.
"Um Pilika?" Mia ventured hoping that she had found the right person. Pilika turned and when she saw Mia smiled just like Jun.
"Oh hi, it's Mia isn't it? We were just talking about you." Pilika said in a cheery voice.
"Uh yeah, Jun said that you had my stuff..." Mia trailed off.
"What? Oh yeah Xephon gave them to me, wait just a minute."
Pilika got up and went to her room, leaving Mia with Tamao. They chatted for a few minutes and Mia learned there was a shopping mall in the town that was open 24/7. Just as she was about to ask Tamao about the various shops in the mall Pilika came back carrying Mia's black bag which had her deadly razor rings and her other belongings. As Mia went through the contents of the bag she realised that an important item was missing.
"Hey where's my memorial tablet?"
"What?" said Pilika who hadn't been listening.
"My memorial tablet, you know the thing a shaman puts his spirit in so that they can rest, it's not in my bag."
"Hey Tamao didn't you find a tablet?" Pilika started.
"Huh? Oh yeah, sorry." Replied Tamao as she fished in her pocket for the black oblong and handed it to Mia who clutched it to her chest, as she did so she sent a small pulse of Furyoku into the tablet and her guardian spirit, it was a women who appeared to be in her twenties and was wearing a red and blue striped leotard and had a carnival mask covering her face.
"Mia are you all right?" the spirit asked her voice full of concern "After the fight he locked me in there and-"
"Calm down Kyra I'm fine although I do have a bit of headache." Mia stopped talking and turned to Pilika and Tamao. ⌠Kyra this Pilika and Tamao they helped me out after the fight, Pilika, Tamao this Kyra my guardian spirit; she used to an acrobat in a famous circus."
The two girls greeted the spirit politely and made idle conversation for a time, then Mia told them that she was going to into town to buy some new clothes since she didn't seem to have any now.
As Mia got up she walked through the house looking for the front door, this place is bigger than it looks, she thought to herself. As she wandered around she started thinking back to her fight with Xephon. Now that it was over Xephon didn't seem nearly as strong, she had held her own for a while and even managed to get a good attack in.
"What are you thinking about?" Kyra asked casually.
"The fight." Mia replied absentmindedly.
"You're thinking we should have won." Kyra told her master.
Mia nodded absentmindedly again and Kyra continued ⌠Despite the fact that he was better than you.", Mia nodded again and walked on a few steps before Kyra's words sank in.
"Hey wait a minute.." Mia began angrily.
Kyra laughed at Mia reaction and replied, "Well it's the truth Mia, even I admit to it but that doesn't mean it has to stay true."
"What do you mean?" Mia said slowly.
"Think about it, at the moment he is stronger than us, but we still have time to become stronger than him. We won our other two preliminary matches so we still qualify for the second round of the tournament, which doesn't start for two more days. We probably won't have to fight him again until the third round of fights at the village, so we have time. We also have time to learn about any weaknesses he has."
"Huh what do you mean?" Mia asked surprised.
"I believe you told me that Xephon's sister was here somewhere, if anyone would know about Xephon's weaknesses it's her." Kyra replied with a smug grin on her face.
"Isn't that a bit like cheating though." said Mia uncertainly.
Kyra frowned "I suppose your right, still we could try and learn a little more about him."
"I think I already know enough." Mia replied suppressing a shiver.
Kyra looked puzzled for a moment and then Mia filled her in on what Zahara had shown her and the other girls.
"That's terrible, "Kyra said in horror "I can"t believe that people would do that."
"Well they did." Mia replied she was slightly pale from remembering what she had seen.
"Mia are you all right?" It was Zahara, she had just come out of the main sitting room and had a tea cup in her hand.
"Yeah I'm fine." Mia muttered although she did feel slightly dizzy.
"You look pale, when was the last time you ate anything?"
"Um.." Mia thought, it had almost been two days since she last had something to eat, "two days." she squeaked.
"I thought it was something like that, come on you need some food." without another word Zahara grasped Mia's arm and led back to the kitchen and proceeded to open the refrigerator and pull out various foods. "Now then what do you want eat, there's seem to be some chicken and some type of fish."
"I think I'll just make myself a sandwich." Mia answered.
"Ok but make sure you put a lot in it you need to eat.' Zahara told her sternly.
"Your worse than my mother.' Mia replied with a grin on her face.
"And your worse than my brother, at least he has the sense not to argue with me.' Zahara countered with a similar grin.
"Why? Was he scared of you?' Mia asked interestedly.
"He was to start off with," Zahara began "but then he got stronger and... had more of a certain attitude, I can still leave a mark on him though." She said with a slight smile.
"Really, how?" Mia asked, her voice anxious.
"Well my brother's main advantage is that he's fast, so if you manage to get a firm hold on him he won't be able to dodge your attacks. Although the problem with my brother is that it's difficult to get a good hold on because he can use his fast movement technique. Luckily however he can't use it repeatedly or he will get tired very quickly. Apart from that he seems to be rather strong so I suggest you use what I told you to your advantage the next time you fight him.■ Zahara finished that sentence with a wink and Mia blushed.
"I didn't mean to-" Mia began.
"Oh don't worry it's quite all right. Finding out your opponents weaknesses is an essential habit for any fighter, at least any fighter that wants to win." Zahara laughed as she said this, "Now then I think you wanted to head down to the shopping mall didn't you? I suggest you go while it's still light outside."
Mia nodded and left the kitchen and finally found the front door, she grabbed her bag and her shoes and headed outside.
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Xephon was tired; he had been training nearly all day and hadn't eaten since breakfast. He would have stayed longer but the owner of the scrap yard had shown up an had been furious when he saw that all the metal had been reduced to confetti which he wouldn't be able to sell. So Xephon had been forced to leave and he decided that he would check up on Yoh and others at the graveyard but decided to stop off at Yoh's house first to get something to eat.
Xephon stepped inside through the open front door, 'Is it ever locked?' He thought to himself as walked down the hall towards the kitchen. But before he came to the kitchen he saw something that made him freeze; it was grey briefcase with a black handle.
"No." Xephon muttered to himself and he slowly started moving back towards the front door.
"Xephon! Where do you think you're going?" Zahara's cold voice echoed down the hall. Xephon stopped moving, there was no point trying leave now she'd seen him. Instead he turned to face her.
"What are you doing here Zahara?" he kept his voice emotionless as he spoke.
"What am I doing here? We haven't seen each other for over two years and that's the first thing you say to me?" Zahra said unforgivingly. "Not that it matters but Anna here (Zahara gestured to Anna who had appeared from main room) gave me a call and told me where to find you."
At this statement Xephon shot Anna a death glare, but Anna simply smiled.
"Don't glare at her like that Xephon, she didn't do anything wrong. In fact it seems to me that you are sorely in need of some more training."
"I don't need your help." Xephon stated simply.
"Oh no? It looks to me like you've gotten lazy, you're not even wearing the training coat I had made for you."
Xephon frowned as he said "Unfortunately there's not enough left of the coat to wear."
"You didn't even take good care of it!" Zahara cried in exasperation "Xephon how do you ever expect to win the Shaman tournament if you don"t train? It's a good thing that I came prepared, now put this on."
As Zahara finished speaking she held up a long grey coat that looked almost identical to the one Xephon had before. Without waiting for Xephon to respond she forced him into the coat. Zahara had been expecting Xephon to stagger under weight because she had increased from 180lbs. to 200lbs but Xephon didn't even falter, instead the faintest trace of a smile appeared on his lips.
"What are you so happy about?" Zahara snapped.
"Nothing, it's just that this coat is a bit light."
Zahara stared at him for a second before she started speaking, "Don't start acting all clever with me, if that's too light then I'll just have to make you do some extra work until I get a heavier one, now then..." a smile appeared on Zahara's lips and Xephon's almost-grin vanished almost instantly.
"I wonder, Xephon are you still running 7 miles everyday?"
Xephon didn't reply but he narrowed his eyes as he saw Zahara pull out the silver piccolo from her pocket. She began to play a forceful tune that reminded Anna of a thunderstorm. As Zahara played a bright light began to glow in front of her, after a few moments the light began to take shape and changed into a brilliant golden Lion with a pure white mane and bright yellow eyes. Zahara stopped playing and looked back to Xephon, her grin becoming wider as she spoke.
"Xephon, you remember Giftzahne don't you? I'm sure you do, he's gotten bored lately because he's had nothing to chase but I think you can fix that can't you? I'll give you to the count of five." As Zahara finished speaking she raised her left hand and began to count down on her fingers.
Xephon stayed where he was for a second before saying the following words.
"Sie waren hier nie gefragt Zahara."
Without another word Xephon turned and ran through the house and out the front the door. Zahara finished counting and the golden Lion charged through the corridor and out of the front door after Xephon.
What Xephon said will be revealed in next chapter, just to keep you waiting.